1. Field
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a medical image interpretation system in which a medical image storing apparatus that stores images of patients captured with a medical imaging device such as an X-ray computed tomography (CT) apparatus or a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, an image referring apparatus that allows a user to refer to the stored images, a medical record generating apparatus that generates medical finding reports on images, and a medical record referring apparatus that refers to the generated medical records are connected via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, such a medical image interpretation system has been utilized that a medical imaging device, a medical image storing apparatus, an image referring apparatus, and a medical record generating apparatus are connected via a network. In this medical image interpretation system, interpretation of an image of a patient (a subject) captured with the medical imaging device (screening for a finding shown in an examination image) is performed, and a key image in the interpretation and a report on the result of the interpretation (a medical record such as a diagnostic report) are generated. In the following description, a diagnostic report as a medical record will be taken as an example.
In order to support generation of such a diagnostic report with a key image, a technique of linking a key image to a sentence relating to a finding in a diagnostic report is disclosed by Japanese patent application publication No. 2005-301453.
With regard to diagnostic reports, a key image is stored together with a diagnostic report for such a finding or diagnosis that seems to be important in an examination as described above, but a key image is not stored together with a diagnostic report for a finding or diagnosis other than the important one. Consequently, linked images can be specified for some of the findings and diagnoses described in diagnostic reports, and cannot be specified for some thereof.
Further, a segmentation technique of specifying the range of images showing anatomical regions (referred to as the “image range” hereinafter) from examination images and specifying the position and range of the region on the images (referred to as the “region position and range” hereinafter) is disclosed by the technical research report of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) Vol. 106, No. 74 (20060518), pp. 95-100 or Working Papers of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) (particular field research) by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2003-2006. However, the segmentation technique is not for selectively specifying a region described in a finding or diagnosis of a diagnostic report.
When performing interpretation of examination images captured for a patient having been searched for previously, a physician writes, into a diagnostic report on an image of a present examination, how a finding indicated in a diagnostic report on a previous examination has changed in a present examination. For this, the physician not only performs interpretation of the image of the present examination but also reads the previous diagnostic report to grasp the finding indicated therein and performs comparison interpretation with the image of the previous examination. In this case, for a finding or diagnosis written in the diagnostic report of the previous examination but provided with no specified key image, it is not clear for which of the images of the previous examination the finding or diagnosis is written. Therefore, the physician needs to perform re-reading not only for the images of the present examination but also for the images of the previous examination to search out an image showing the written finding or diagnosis. It takes time to perform this operation.
In particular, in a case that a physician who is not engaged in interpretation refers to a diagnostic report, it takes effort to search out a finding provided with no specified key image from among images.